A/N: So just a heads up, this entire chapter is a flashback, I repeat, this entire chapter is a flashback to before the beginning of the first chapter. Thanks, and hope you enjoy and review please! :)

HEELZiggler Gotta turn on the charm when I meet my babycake's parents…wait, I never turn it off #blessed

WWEAJLee HEELZiggler Please refrain from doing the Ziggle Wiggle in front of my mom, babe.

HEELZiggler WWEAJLee I thought you said she liked it when I did that, like mother like daughter, right, babe? ;)

WWEAJLee HEELZiggler I just don't want you to leave me for her. Why have the remake when you can have the original?

HEELZiggler WWEAJLee It wouldn't be my first mother-daughter combo jk jk (it was two daughters)

"Oh, you are so much more handsome in person."

"I like you already," Nick grinned as AJ's mother gave him the once over.

"Mom, please don't feed into his ego," AJ rolled her eyes, "you forget that I'm the one that actually has to deal with it."

"Don't interrupt your mother when she's trying to give someone a compliment," Nick chastised his girlfriend. "Mrs. Mendez, I really appreciate it, and April's description of you didn't even do you justice at all."

"Ugh!" AJ groaned, dropping her mouth open and making a gagging noise. "Don't lay it on so thick, Nicky, you've only been here two minutes."

"I'm just complimenting your mother, wow, Apes, I never thought complimenting someone's mother would be enough to make you mad at me."

"April, let the man speak," her mother said, smiling charmingly up at her daughter's boyfriend.

"I really am looking forward to meeting all of you," Nick told her mother. "Our schedules are just always so hectic, but I've wanted to meet you for a really long time."

"And we've wanted to meet you," AJ's mother told him, taking him by the arm and leading him into the house.

AJ stared after them for a long moment. She knew, she'd always known her family would immediately take to Nick. Everyone always did. Wherever they went, he was always the one charming the pants off everyone, men and women alike. Sometimes she felt like the hanger-on when he was around. She was never as lively or as sociable. Whenever they did their media days, he was the only reason she ever felt as confident as she did. Before him, her interviews were shaky, and she felt anxious, and she'd run through all her nervous tics.

It wasn't until Nick that she felt confident. He just oozed confidence, something she didn't really have but faked on a daily basis. Oh, she had self-esteem, that wasn't the problem, she had bravery, but confidence, not over-analyzing everything, that was something she still struggled with. Nick made it better though. She was so thoroughly convinced that Nick made everything in her life better.

She followed them into the house, and her mother was already showing him around. Her brother and sister were both flying in tomorrow to spend a few days with them. With the next show being in Miami and with them having the weekend off from house shows, they'd decided that it wouldn't be too difficult to make a quick trip to Puerto Rico. AJ knew Nick's parents very well by now, having passed through Cleveland so many times, but Nick had yet to meet her parents.

They were becoming more serious, and she wanted him to feel like her family was accessible to him. Her sister and brother met him previously, and both of them really liked Nick, which made her believe that her parents would like him too. Now was the test, and five minutes in and it looked like her mother already loved him. He was so easily lovable, and she was so prickly. She sighed as Nick helped with the bags, and promised to try all of her mother's cooking.

"Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?" AJ nudged him in the side when his mother went to go get her father, who was out back.

"Me, overachieving at something? That's never happened before. Besides, babe, what's the problem, don't you want your parents to like me?"

"Yes, I do, but I don't want them to like you more than me," she pouted, and he laughed, leaning down to kiss her forehead. She wondered if it was because her father was coming in soon and he was afraid of him. She honestly didn't know how her father would react because she'd never brought anyone home before, a fact that she'd just now remembered. "Oh, hey, by the way, you're the first guy I've ever brought home."

"Wow, I'm honored," he pretended to tear up. "This is a big moment for me. I'd like to thank every other asshole in the world that didn't see how amazing you were. If not for them, I wouldn't be here right now."

"Stop it," she hissed.

"I'm sorry, this is what I do when I'm nervous."

"You're…nervous. Nick Nemeth, Dolph Ziggler is nervous? You've never been nervous in your entire life, you were born with your arms spread announcing you were here," she didn't see him as ever being nervous. He had so much confidence.

"April, I want your family to like me because I like you, I love you, and I just want them to see that I'm good for you."

She softened because of this man and his way with words, "I'm sorry, they will love you, my mom already does, and they will love you, I promise."

Later that evening, Nick walked out on the porch, hands in his pockets, as he looked around. He saw AJ's father sitting out there, smoking, and while Nick thought it was gross to be around cigarette smoke, he wanted a moment alone with AJ's father. He walked over slowly, clearing his throat to alert the other man of his presence.

"Hey, Mr. Mendez—"

"Nick, call me George, please, I think we're past the point of such formalities."

"Sorry," Nick sat down next to him. He looked over the porch at the large field next to the house. "I really like it here, I can see why you'd want to come back, it's peaceful."

"Right now it's peaceful," her father said, "so I get the feeling that this isn't just to talk about how nice it is here. I have a feeling there's more to this conversation."

Nick gave a short laugh. "Yeah, I thought about waiting, but I feel like I need to say this now while I have the chance…everyone thinks I'm this huge flirt, and they're right, I am a pretty big flirt. I love women, you know, I just love what they're about, which I know sounds weird, but yeah, I've always been flirty, but it's always been with women who mean nothing to me. Things with April though, they've always been different. She's…she's pretty great, isn't she?"

"I'm biased," George said.

"So am I," Nick laughed. "I love your daughter. I love her more than anyone I've ever met. I never actually thought that I'd want someone so geeky and nerdy, but she's perfect for me in ways I just didn't expect. The last year with her, hell, working with her before that, everything has been more than I expected. And I don't know when we're going to get to visit again, but to put it out there, I want to marry April. I want to marry her, and I want everything else with her too."

"Ahh, I figured this was where things might go."

"I'm not necessarily asking your permission because April is her own person, but I am asking for your blessing, I guess, I just want you to know that when she's with me, she's everything. I want her to be everything for the rest of my life."

"Of course you have it, I've heard nothing but good things about you, and my whole family loves you, and I kind of like you despite the fact you're putting the moves on my youngest child," George slapped his back. "You have more than my blessing, you have my friendship, and I'm going to be happy to welcome you into the family."

"Great, thanks, I was a lot more nervous about this than any match I've ever been in."

"Just treat her like you already do and we'll be fine."

After a short conversation with her father, Nick went inside the house and into the kitchen where AJ's mother was cleaning up. "Here, let me help you," Nick said, grabbing some of the dishes in her hands and putting them away.

"And you help out with chores, is there anything you don't do?"

"Sing," Nick said, "at least not very well. April tells me to shut up most of the time if she hears me singing, but I think it's because she finds me singing Britney Spears or Kesha songs, and she hates when I do that."

"Well, I guess we all have our failings," she told him sweetly, "now what are my daughter's? I know there must be some things about her that bug you, right?"

Nick laughed, "Your daughter is pretty perfect to me. I mean, at first, the nerd thing was a little off-putting, but I didn't know her then I got to know her, and it's grown on me. I wouldn't call myself a lover of those things, but I don't know, everything about her is a little endearing."

"I like you," she told him.

"Thank you, I like you too," Nick told her with a nod as he put some glasses into the cupboard.

"I wish I had more to compare you to, but April never brought over any boys in high school because there were no boys in high school. I talked to Jay a couple times, but I never met Greg. My daughter put a lot of time into her dream, and didn't leave much time for anything else."

"I know how that goes," Nick looked down. "I barely had any girlfriends before college, where I was with the same girl for pretty much the entire time. I dated Nikki, you know, Nikki Bella as she goes by, for a couple years, and had a few short relationships, nothing to write home about. I just wanted so much to be a wrestler. I put all my time into that."

"So did she. I remember dismissing her when she was about 12 when she'd say she was going to be a diva. But she was determined, and she did anything she could to make it happen, and look at her now."

"I think that's what I loved second about her."

"Second?"

"Her laugh was the first thing," Nick explained. "She laughed at one of my jokes, and nobody had ever laughed like that. She still does it. It's like, whatever I say, she thinks it's amazing."

AJ's mother smiled softly as she watched Nick's face. She could tell he was replaying some moment in his mind, maybe one from a long time back now, and it was making him stare wistfully away from her, far away from her. If Nick didn't say that he loved her daughter, it was in the way he looked when she was around or when she was brought up or when he was speaking of her. It was almost in everything he did, and it made her think this man was going to always think of her daughter like that.

"When are you going to propose to her?" Eva asked.

"I don't know," Nick answered straight away. "Probably within the next year for sure. I've been thinking about it for a little while now. I didn't want to rush it since we've only been together for a little over a year, but I think that whole 'you'll just know' thing is actually pretty true. I knew pretty early on."

"Good, because I didn't want to see it ending up any other way. I know my daughter, I know her very well, and she loves you very, very much."

"I think she'll say yes," Nick chuckled to hide the nerves behind it.

"Oh, I can't imagine she'd say no."

"I really hope so."

She walked over to Nick, pressing her hand to his cheek. "I'm going to be very happy to welcome you to the family. You treat my daughter well, and you love her, I can't ask for more. Just never hurt her, her brother was in the army, he could kill you in one move."

Nick nodded, "I know, believe me, he's told me."

"Good man," she winked at him. "Do you know how you'll do it?"

"No, but I want it to be us, I just want it to be the right moment. I think it'll be like…I just look at her one day and I won't be able to help myself, and I'll just tell her how I feel and leave the question on the table."

"With the ring?"

"Yeah, with the ring, but knowing AJ, she might beat me to the punch or something." He would not put it past his girlfriend to propose to him before he got a chance to propose to her. He wouldn't mind it, he would love to see what she'd do.

"Knowing my girl, she might, but either way, I wish nothing but the best for you."

"Thanks, now I just need that moment."